


To Leave Another Life Behind

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: Vhenan AU [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8269990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: Far beyond the age when Lyna and Solas worked to restore the world that was lost, after Corypheus was defeated, they've realized that nothing they do will bring back Elvhenan. And so they simply live, watching the years roll by. What else should they do but watch?





	

“How many ages have you seen?”

“Ma falon…” Lyna said with a sigh, denials bubbling on her lips. The look of steely determination in her friend’s gaze stopped her.

“How many, Evanura?” she asked again.

Suddenly, Lyna chuckled. She couldn’t help it. “Did you know that you bear the same name as my mother? Well, my mother’s wife anyway.”

“What?” Deshanna asked, shocked out of her pestering.

Lyna pulled her phone out of her pocket and crossed her legs, settling further into her friend’s couch as she opened a message.

“Tell me how long you’ve lived,” Deshanna said again.

“You really don’t want to know,” Lyna told her, stabbing at the letters on her phone’s screen harder than was necessary. She hadn’t even lived in this city for a year, and she upset to be leaving again so soon. “How long have you known?” she asked, her inner turmoil hidden from view. Long ages had given her the best poker face anyone would ever see, but she was having trouble disguising the trembling in her hands.

“I figured it out yesterday,” Deshanna said triumphantly. _Thank goodness,_ Lyna thought. _Only a day…_

“You know, your apartment could really use some ventilation,” she said, and approached the window nearby as she hit send and the message was whisked away into cyber space, her next step now set in stone. She opened the window and stuck her head out, breathing deeply of the polluted air. How different it was from the air she grew up on…

“It’s not that bad,” Deshanna said defensively. Lyna grinned over her shoulder at the woman.

“You only say that because you live here,” she said. “You’re used to it.” She looked down at the five-story drop to the pavement and smirked at it. _Child’s play._

Lyna returned to the sofa. Her phone vibrated in her hands and she swiped the screen to read the message.

_On my way, Vhenan. Be ready._

_Already ahead of you, dear,_ she thought sardonically.

“So how old are you, really?” Deshanna asked, yet again. Lyna sighed, but it came out as more of an irritated huff. _May as well,_ she thought.

“The Fifth Blight happened in 9:30 Dragon,” she said. “I was officially named an adult of my Dalish clan a few years before it.”

Deshanna gasped loudly, covering her mouth with her hands. “But that was…” She trailed off.

“Over a thousand years ago, yes,” Lyna finished for her.

“Such a long time to be alone…” Deshanna lamented, and Lyna nearly laughed.

“What makes you think I’m alone?” she asked sarcastically.

“Well, I…” Deshanna frowned. “I guess it was just an assumption,” she finished lamely.

 _Come on, come on,_ Lyna thought, impatient to be done with this. She glanced at the empty window, scowling.

“Wait!” Deshanna exclaimed suddenly. Lyna had to control the fight or flight instinct that the sudden noise summoned in her. “You’re Dalish? But you don’t wear Vallaslin!”

“It makes it harder to blend into city crowds,” Lyna said wryly. Deshanna frowned, her brows drawing together in such an adorable way.

 _Why can’t I have this?_ Lyna wondered for just a moment. _Why can’t I have just one friend?_

But then she remembered why. _His face when he learns her true name, her deeds in a world long dead, what she did to try to reclaim a stolen past. His fear when he sees her lover, hears his name, whispers his other title on shock-numbed lips. He tried to kill them. He had to die. They couldn’t simply make him forget, like they would have if he hadn’t gotten violent. If he hadn’t known the whole truth._

“Why are you here, of all places?” Deshanna asked after a while. Lyna laughed.

“Is there somewhere I should be?” she asked, an eyebrow raised at the elven woman. “Besides not existing, anyway.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Deshanna said. “I guess I would have thought that an immortal elf should be… doing something important?”

Lyna sighed, suddenly tired, the weight of all her long years of life weighing heavily on her shoulders. “I’m just living, like you,” she said. “Just watching the years pass. There’s nothing else to do. Not anymore.” They’d already done everything they could to reclaim what was lost, and had failed.

“But you have someone?” she asked. “Someone to share the years with? So you won’t be so lonely?”

Lyna looked at her sharply. “Yes,” she said slowly.

“Do you love them?” she asked intently. _Does she know? Does she guess?_ Lyna wondered. “Do you love this companion, or are you with them because you have no other options?”

“I love him,” Lyna told her, wishing she could see behind the other woman’s eyes and into her thoughts, like Cole. She missed him…

“And he loves you?”

“Of course I love her,” Solas said, standing in front of the open window as if he’d been there the whole time. Deshanna gasped in shock and jumped to her feet. Lyna stood slowly and embraced him. He whispered words in a language only they still spoke, trying to comfort her. She sighed.

“Ar lath ma,” she reminded him. He cupped her cheek in his hand.

“Vhenan,” was all he said, but it was enough. She was his heart, beating in his chest. And if they had to spend eternity with no one but each other, she’d lay in his arms beneath the ever-changing stars and count each one that went out and each one that formed anew with him. He was enough.

“I’m ready,” she told him. He nodded.

“I’m sorry, Deshanna,” she said, looking across the room at the curious woman who had been her friend since she moved to this city.

Deshanna’s eyes were knowing and sad. “You were a good friend, Evanura,” she said softly. Lyna smiled, just a little.

“Just two days,” Lyna said to Solas. He nodded and cast magic at the woman across the room. She gasped and blinked, then shook her head as if that would clear it. In the haze of magic, she went to her room and curled up to sleep. She’d wake in a few hours with a simulated hangover, an empty bottle of her favorite brand of vodka next to her bed.

Lyna sighed. “She’s going to feel like shit, thinking she drank away two whole days.”

Solas didn’t respond to that. “Did she tell anyone else?” he asked. Lyna shook her head. “Good. Let’s go pack up your apartment.”

“Where are we going next, ma lath?” Lyna asked as they dropped, unnoticed, from her friend’s window onto the sidewalk far below.

“It’s your turn to choose, is it not?” he asked, quirking a brow at her. She chuckled.

“Val Royeaux?” she suggested, just to see his face sour. She laughed. “Kidding!” she told him. He shook his head, smiling. “How about Rivain? I kind of miss being a pirate!”

“Which one if Isabela’s progeny are we going to champion this time?” he asked her in mock disapproval. She knew he loved the raiders Isabela’s daughters had become, and loved helping their descendants follow their however-many-greats grandmother’s footsteps.

Lyna chuckled. “It’s time for a girl. The last two were men.”

“Fair enough,” Solas said, and they left yet another life behind.

**Author's Note:**

> I have been reading WAY too many modern AUs, so here's my own little modern story.
> 
> Translations:  
> Ma falon: my friend  
> Vhenan: heart  
> Ar lath ma: I love you  
> Ma lath: my love


End file.
